The MAC keeps winning trophies

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

Ingredients: Great schools, community support, and coaches, hard working and coachable student athletes, along with good supportive families. Mix in accountability, great competitive drive and religion, and the finished product should be outstanding athletic teams.

It’s a recipe members of the Midwest Athletic Conference use each and every school year, and it’s led to 120 state championships in various sports since the MAC began athletic competition in the fall of 1973.

Minster leads the way with 30 state titles, including two during the 2016-2017 school year — Girls Division III cross country and Division IV baseball. Coldwater has 24 state titles, St. Henry 20, Marion Local 17, and Delphos St. John’s also has double digit state championships, with 10.

Even more impressive is the fact that except for the 1973-74 school year (the MAC’s first year), and the 1981-1982 school year, the conference has claimed at least one state title.

All of this has led many to believe the MAC is the premiere small school conference in Ohio, and perhaps the entire country.

“I think the record of accomplishments of the MAC schools in all sports speaks for itself,” conference commissioner Don Kemper said. “I am probably a little biased, but I think our schools could compete year-in and year-out in all sports with any conference made up of similar sized schools, no matter where they are located.”

Regardless if it’s the fall, winter or spring sports season, MAC schools face top-notch competition that prepares each team well for tournament play.

“Some of the best competition the teams face in the regular season is against other MAC teams,” Kemper said. “The teams also play some of the best competition in non-conference games. The WBL, NWC, SCAL and other conferences and leagues help prepare our teams for the tournament as well, and deserve some of the credit.”

While fans from other parts of the state faithfully root on their teams, MAC fans seem to do it differently.

“The attendance and fan support at our sporting events is tremendous,” Kemper explained. “I’m not certain the fans and student-athletes understand that it is not like that everywhere in the state. It is special, and playing in front of large crowds becomes normal to them.”

“When one school is eliminated from the tournament, it is not uncommon for some of the fans of that school to follow other MAC schools deeper into the tournament and provide support,” Kemper added.

“If you are around the rivalries in the conference and understand that one school absolutely hates to lose to another MAC school, and then see fans from that school cheering for one it considers it’s biggest rival, it is very special and I don’t think it is as accepted anywhere in the state as it is in the MAC.”